High flying graduate recruit from Burnley becomes one of the youngest female commercial drone pilots in the UK.

The 23-year-old from Burnley qualified after an 18-month training programme and on-the-job mentoring at Networx3 UAV. She joins Networx3 UAV commercial director Caroline Earnshaw, also a commercial drone pilot, on the roster for client work – from inspecting oil pipelines to surveying wind farms.

Olivia joined the firm after completing her photography degree at Falmouth University in 2020. She said: “It’s completely different to my work as a photographer but you can still be really creative when you fly a drone - it’s a whole new world.

“There’s a lot to it – you don’t just stick a drone up in the air and hope for the best because you need to know all about different airspaces, where you can and can’t fly and weather conditions etc. A lot of thought goes into flying a drone before you actually fly a drone.”

One of Olivia’s first jobs was capturing the magic of steam at award-winning Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway, which runs through the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.

Olivia’s training to be awarded her pilot’s licence included exams covering drone legislation, risk assessments and health and safety coupled with flying logs and hours of observations of drone flights. Olivia and Caroline are part of a small but growing cohort of women pilots using their flying skills in the business, media and humanitarian sectors.

The trailblazing duo are part of a six-strong team of commercial drone pilots at Networx3 UAV.